Differences between standard Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian

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Central South Slavic languages and dialects (Central South Slavic diasystem) Serbian · Croatian · Bosnian Serbo-Croat · Bunjevac · Montenegrin · Šokac Shtokavian · Kajkavian · Chakavian · Torlak Romano-Serbian · Slavoserbian · Šatrovački · Našinski Burgenland Croatian · Molise Croatian · Užice speech Differences between Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian Alphabets Gaj's Latin alphabet, Serbian Cyrillic (modern) Bosnian Cyrillic, Glagolitic (historical) v • d • e

The standard Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian languages differ in various aspects as outlined below. The various nuances do not present major obstacles in the communication.

After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, languages of Croats and Serbs went their own way, after being politically forcefully kept "together" since 1918. [1].
In socialist Yugoslavia, the official policy was oriented toward "equalizing" and "merging"[2] the Croat and Serb language, which caused discontent among Croat common people, writers and poets.
In socialist Yugoslavia, the official language definition was :

• in SR Croatia as the "common language of Croats and Serbs" [3]

The Bosniak language went into its independent development after the name change of the people of Bosnian Muslims in 1993 into "Bosniaks".

Independent development of Montenegrin language became a topic among some Montenegrin academists in 1990's.

It should be noted that Serbian and Bosnian language standards tend to be "inclusive", i.e. to accept a wider range of idioms and to use loan-words, while Croatian standard is more purist and prefers neologisms instead of loan-words, as well as re-use of neglected older words. These approaches are, again, due to different cultural and historical development of the three languages.

Contents 1 Outline 2 Writing 2.1 Script 2.2 Phonemes 2.3 Orthography 3 Speaking 3.1 Accentuation 3.2 Phonetics 3.3 Morphology 3.4 Internationalisms 3.5 Pronouns 3.6 Syntax 3.6.1 Infinitive vs. subjunctive 3.6.2 Interrogative constructs 3.6.3 Trebati (need) 3.7 Vocabulary 3.7.1 Examples 3.7.2 Names of the months 4 Notes on comprehension 5 Language sample 6 See also 7 External links 8 References

[edit] Outline

There are discerning opinions among linguists whether the differences between the three languages (or four, if Montenegrin language is included) are substantial to justify their treatment as separate languages.

Croatian linguist Miro Kačić has given the following general overview of differences between Croatian and Serbian languages^[1]. This blueprint can be, by extension, slightly modified to include Bosnian.

"In this book I have tried to present some of the fundamental delusions and distortions which have brought about the misconception, which is still present in world linguistics today, that Croatian and Serbian are one language. I have shown that Croatian and Serbian differ to a greater or lesser degree on all levels. These differences exist on the following ones:

1. The level of literary language. There are two traditions of writing which are temporally and spatially separated due to the different historical, cultural and literary development of the two nations.
2. The level of standard language. The two traditions of linguistic codification are completely disparate. The period of Croato-Serbian normative convergence, from the time of Croatian "Vukovians" to the imposed unification of these two languages in the former Yugoslavia, is only an interval in the development of the Croatian linguistic norm. As a turning point, this period was atypical with respect to three centuries of this development.
3. The level of genetic relatedness. Croatian is based on three macrodialects, while Serbian is dominated by a single macrodialect . The interference between three Croatian dialects which provided the basis for Croatian writing and literature has uninterruptedly existed for centuries as a formative force in the codification of standard Croatian.
4. The typological level. Differences exist on all levels of the linguistic system: phonetic/phonological, accentual, morphologic, word-formational, syntactic, semantic-pragmatic and lexical. Linguistic systems which differ on all these levels cannot be one language."

On the other hand, Ivo Pranjković, the author of Grammar of Croatian Language states that "On the level of standardology, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian and even Montenegrin are different varieties, but of a same language. Thus, on purely linguistic level, or genetic level, on typological level, we're talking about one language and that must be clearly said. If anyone disagrees with that, let him present the arguments."^[2] Since Pranjković's interview was presented as a sensational instance of a linguist "coming out" against the prevailing "nationalist" stream, it must be born in mind that it is probably disfigured for manipulative purposes in order to get as much attention as possible. Pranjković himself has stated in numerous cases (for instance in the language and culture paper "Vijenac", whose regular contributor he is) that "Ćorić (an opponent in a debate) does not, of course, agree with the contention I've stated at the beginning of my text, that Croatian and Serbian standard language, as far as they exist, function as separate standard languages". "^[3] Therefore, since he has devoted numerous texts in various polemics on standardology of Croatian and Serbian, Pranjković's view on the theme cannot be accurately deduced from a single, deliberately sensationalist interview.

[edit] Writing

[edit] Script

Though all could theoretically use either, the scripts differ:

• Croatian language uses the Latin alphabet.
• Bosnian language uses both Latin alphabet and Cyrillic alphabet (the latter, however, only formally).
• Serbian language uses both Cyrillic alphabet and Latin alphabet. (Cyrillic is in official use in Serbia and Republika Srpska. Latin script is also accepted as defined by laws, and used roughly by 1/3 of native speakers as the first script, although no official records exist).
• Montenegrin language predominantly uses the Latin alphabet, although Cyrillic alphabet is also somewhat used.

Historically, Croats, Serbs and Montenegrins have used glagolica script; Croatian form was mostly "squared", while Serb form was "mostly" rounded. Still, both peoples rarely had mixed forms of glagolica letters used. Glagolica is the oldest South Slavic script.

There was another, less standardized script. It had more versions and names: arvacko pismo/arvatica (means the script used by Croats; name was used in Povaljska listina), bosanica/bosančica (means the script that was from Bosnia), begovica (used by beys), poljičica (means it was from Poljica region in southern Croatia). In some regions of Croatia, it was used until late 1860's, while Roman Catholic seminary in Omiš taught new priests in writing in that script ("arvacki šeminarij") .

Islamized population in areas of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro also once used a modified Arabic script (based on the Ottoman version) until early in the 20th century, primarily for literary or artistic purposes.

[edit] Phonemes

All official languages have the same set of regular phonemes, so the Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian Latin and Serbian Cyrillic alphabets map 1:1. However, these letters/phonemes are not unknown to other South Slavic peoples.

In some regions of Croatia and Bosnia, the sounds "č" and "ć" and also "dž" and "đ" are either indistinct or pronounced as ć and đ respectively. Then, in some regions of Croatia, sounds "č" and "ć" are spoken in "softer" version - "č" is pronounced between literary "č" and "ć", while "ć" is spoken much softer; somewhere it turns into "tj". Similar is with "dž" and "đ". In some regions in Croatia, "dž" is spoken as "đ" or "ž", while "đ" sounds the same way as in literary standard, or as a "dj". Again, that is not reflected in the official language.

[edit] Orthography

The official language in Croatia alphabetically transliterates foreign names (and sometimes words) even in children's books [but not from Russian, and all other languages using Cyrillic alphabet] while the official language in Serbia performs a phonetic transcription of them whenever possible, regardless of alphabet. Officially, Bosnian language follows the Croatian example, but many books and newspapers phonetically transcribe foreign names.

Also, when the subject of the future tense is omitted, producing a reversal of infinitive and auxiliary "ću", only final "i" of the infinitive is elided in Croatian, while in Serbian the two are merged into single word. Bosnian accepts both variants:

• "Uradit ću to." (Croatian)
• "Uradiću to." (Serbian)

Regardless of spelling, the pronunciation is the same.

[edit] Speaking

[edit] Accentuation

In general, Shtokavian dialect has four types of accent (short falling, ı̏, short rising ì, long falling î, and long rising, í). In addition, the unstressed vowels can be short and long (ī); the latter occur only after the stressed syllable. In declension and verb conjugation, verb shifts, both by type and position, are very frequent.

The distinction between four accented and two unaccented types of stress is fully preserved in dialects of Bosnia in Herzegovina. (Including Bosniaks and Serbs, and to an extent Croats). In addition, a distinct characteristics of Bosnian dialects is stress shift to enclitics (e.g. phrase u Bosni (in Bosnia) will be pronounced /ȕbosni/ instead of /ubȍsni/ as in the rest of Shtokavian area).

Most Serbian dialects also preserve the four-accent system, but the unstressed lengths have been shortened or disappeared; accent shifts also survived (although not with all speakers in the same extent). Stress shift to enclitics is, however, rarer and mostly limited to negative verb constructs (ne znam = I don't know -> /nȅznām/).

As result, both Serbian and Bosnian official linguistic base the accentuation system on dialects of Eastern Herzegovina and Western Serbia. That system, promoted by media, has influenced to an extent the accentuation in northern Serbia, including Belgrade, where so-called Šumadija-Vojvodina subdialect prevailed.

The situation in Croatia, is, however, different. A large proportion of users of standard Croatian does not distinguish rising from falling accents, especially short ones. Post-accented lengths are all but disappeared, and the number of stress shifts is significantly reduced. ^[4][5] The current situation in official linguistics is somewhat unclear: most of older literature in circulation promotes the four-accent system, but it might be officially changed soon to a three-accent system (long falling, long rising, and short).^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Phonetics

Feature	Croatian	Serbian	English
Opposition -u/e	burza	berza	stock-exchange
	porculan	porcelan	porcelain
Opposition -u/i	tanjur	tanjir	plate
Opposition -l/-o after o	sol	so	salt
	kolčić	kočić	stick
Serbian often drops letter H in the initial and medial position:	čahura	čaura	cartridge
	hrvač	rvač	wrestler
	hrđa	rđa	rust

[edit] Morphology

There are three variants of the Štokavian dialect that stem from different reflex of proto-Slavic vowel Jat. The jat appears in modern dialects in the following way: the Church Slavonic word for child, děte, is:

• dete in Ekavian
• dite in Ikavian
• dijete in Ijekavian

Serbian language recognizes ekavian and ijekavian as equal variants, while the Croatian and Bosnian uses only ijekavian. In Bosnia and Herzegovina (regardless of the official language) and in Montenegro, ijekavian is used almost exclusively.

Ikavian is limited to dialectal use in Dalmatia, Lika, Istria, Western Herzegovina, Turkish Croatia/Bosanska Krajina, Slavonia and northern Bačka (Vojvodina). So, for example:

English	ekavian	ijekavian	ikavian
wind	vetar	vjetar	vitar
milk	mleko	mlijeko	mliko
to want	hteti	htjeti	htiti
arrow	strela	strijela	strila
But:
small arrow	strelica	strelica strjelica	strilica

A few Croatian linguists have tried to explain the following differences in morphological structure for some words with introduction of a new vowel, "jat diphthong". This is not the opinion of most linguists.

Sometimes this leads to confusion: Serbian poticati (to stem from) is in Croatian "to encourage". Croatian "to stem from" is potjecati, while Serbian for "encourage" is podsticati.

English	Croatian	Serbian
add by pouring	dolijevati	dolivati
diarrhea	proljev	proliv
gulf, bay	zaljev	zaliv
to influence	utjecati	uticati

Bosnian official language allows both variants, and ambiguities are solved by preferring the Croatian variant, which is a general practice for Serbian-Croatian ambiguities.

Another example for phonetical differences is words which have h in Croatian and Bosnian, but v in Serbian:

English	Serbian and Montenegrin	Bosnian and Croatian
tobacco	duvan	duhan
to cook	kuvati	kuhati
dry	suvo	suho

Phonetically and phonologically, the phoneme "h" is reinstated in many words as a distinct feature of Bosnian speech and language tradition, some Bosniaks prefer not to use the Serbian terminology. However, there are many people who do not speak this way. It is a regional or colloquial way of speaking.

English	Bosnian	Croatian	Serbian and Montenegrin
easy	lahko	lako	lako
soft	mehko	meko	meko
coffee	kahva	kava	kafa

As ijekavian is the common dialect of all official languages, it will be used for examples on this page. Other than this, examples of different morphology are:

English	Bosnian	Croatian	Serbian (ijekavian)	Montenegrin
point	tačka	točka	tačka	tačka
correct	tačno	točno	tačno	tačno
municipality	općina	općina	opština	opština
priest	svećenik	svećenik	sveštenik	sveštenik
male student	student	student	student	student
female student	studentica	studentica	studentkinja	studentica
male professor	profesor	profesor	profesor	profesor
female professor	profesorica	profesorica	profesorka	profesorica
translator	prevodilac	prevoditelj	prevodilac	prevoditelj
reader	čitalac	čitatelj	čitalac	čitalac
But:
assembly	skupština	skupština	skupština	skupština
male president	predsjednik	predsjednik	predsjednik	predsjednik
female president	predsjednica	predsjednica	predsjednica	predsjednica
male Black	crnac	crnac	crnac	crnac
female Black	crnkinja	crnkinja	crnkinja	crnkinja
thinker	mislilac	mislilac	mislilac	mislilac
teacher	učitelj	učitelj	učitelj	učitelj

[edit] Internationalisms

Also many internationalisms and transliterations are different:

English	Bosnian	Croatian	Serbian and Montenegrin
to organise	organizirati organizovati	organizirati	organizovati
to construct	konstruisati konstruirati	konstruirati	konstruisati
But:
to analyse	analizirati	analizirati	analizirati

Historically, modern age internationalisms entered Bosnian and Croatian mostly through German and Italian, while Serbian received them through French and Russian, so different localization patterns were established based on those languages.

English	Croatian	Serbian	Note
Bethlehem	Betlehem	Vitlejem	Through Latin in Croatian, through Greek in Serbian
impedance	impedanca	impedansa	Through French in Serbian
Athens	Atena	Atina
chlorine	klor	hlor
But:
license	licenca	licenca

Most of chemical element names are different: for international names, Bosnian and Croatian use -ij where Serbian has -ijum (uranij–uranijum). In some native names, Bosnian and Croatian have -ik where Serbian and Montenegrin has -(o)nik (kisik–kiseonik(oxygen), vodik–vodonik(hydrogen)). Yet others are totally different (dušik–azot, (Nitrogen), kositar–kalaj (Tin)). Some are the same: srebro (silver), zlato (gold), bakar (copper).

Still, it is important to note that there are words from Russian that are considered "to be in spirit of Croatian language", and are felt as Croatian, not as foreign word. Other Russian loanwords are considered as "serbisms".

Notes: the term "ostvariti" is preferred over "realizovati/realizirati"; here the word has been used as it is an internationalism. In the Bosnian language, the variant in braces is also allowed, but the other variant is preferred.

Some other imported words are of masculine gender in Serbian and Bosnian, but feminine gender in Croatian:

English	Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian	Croatian
minute	minut	minuta
But:
planet	planeta	planet

[edit] Pronouns

In Serbian and Bosnian, pronoun what has form što when used as relative, but šta when used as interrogative; the latter applies also to relative sentences with interrogative meaning. Croatian and Montenegrin uses što in all contexts.

English	Bosnian and Serbian	Croatian	Montenegrin
What did he say?	Šta je rekao?	Što je rekao?	Što je reka?
Ask him what he said.	Pitaj ga šta je rekao.	Pitaj ga što je rekao.	Pitaj ga što je reka.
What he said was a lie.	To što je rekao je laž.	To što je rekao je laž.	To što je reka je laž.

This is applicable only to nominative case – in all other cases, all languages have the same declension – čega, čemu etc. for što.

In Croatian, pronoun who has form tko, while Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin use ko. The declension is same, kome, koga, etc. In addition, Croatian uses komu as an alternative form in dative case.

In Croatian, the preferred clitic form of accusative of personal pronoun ona (she) is ju (her). In Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin, je is preferred.

Usage of locative pronouns gd(j)e, kuda i kamo differs between Serbian and Croatian (the latter not being used in Serbian):

English	Serbian (Ijekavian)	Croatian	Montenegrin
Where will you be?	Gdje ćeš biti?	Gdje ćeš biti?	Ðe ćeš bit?
Where will you go?	Gdje ćeš ići? (Kuda ćeš ići?)	Kamo ćeš ići?	Ðe ćeš ić?
Which way will you go?	Kuda ćeš ići?	Kuda ćeš ići?	Kuda ćeš ić?

Note:
Gdje has answers in these adverbs: ovdje, tu, ondje, (here (where I am), there (where you are), there (neither by me nor by you), referring in certain point in space.
Kamo has answers in these adverbs:ovamo, tamo, onamo, with similar English translations, but these adverbs refere to the certain side, wider area, meaning here (on my side), there (on your side), there (neither by my side nor by your side).

[edit] Syntax

[edit] Infinitive vs. subjunctive

With modal verbs such as ht(j)eti (want) or moći (can), the infinitive is prescribed in Croatian, while the construction da (that/to) + present tense is preferred in Serbian. This is a remnant of subjunctive, and possibly an influence of Balkan linguistic union. Again, both alternatives are present and allowed in Bosnian.

The sentence "I want to do that" could be translated with any of

• Hoću to da uradim
• Hoću to uraditi

This difference partly extends to future tense, which in Serbo-Croatian is formed in a similar manner as in English, using (elided) present of verb "ht(j)eti" -> "hoću"/"hoćeš"/... -> "ću"/"ćeš"/... as auxiliary verb. Here, the infinitive is formally required in both variants:

• Ja ću to uraditi. (I shall do that.)

However, when da+present is used instead, in it can additionally express the subject's will or intention to perform the action:

• Ja ću to da uradim. (I will do that.)

This form is more frequently used in Serbia and Bosnia. The nuances in meaning between two constructs can be slight or even lost (especially in Serbian dialects), in similar manner as the shall/will distinction varies across English dialects. Overuse of da+present is regarded as Germanism in Serbian linguistic circles, and it can occasionally lead to awkward sentences.

However, Croatians seldom naturally use da+present form. Instead, a different form can be used to express will:

• Ja hoću to uraditi. (I want to do that.)

[edit] Interrogative constructs

In interrogative and relative constructs, Croatian uses the interrogative participle li after the verb, while Serbian also allows forms with da li. (A similar situation exists in French, where a question can be formed either by inversion or using est-ce que, and can be stretched in English with modal verbs):

• Možeš li? (Can you?) (Croatian and Serbian)
• Da li možeš? (Do you can?) (Serbian)

In addition, non-grammatical je li ("Is it?"), usually elided to jel', is vernacular for forming all kinds of questions, e.g. Jel' možeš?. In official language, it is used only in questions involving auxiliary verb je (="is"):

• Je li moguće? (Is it possible?) (Croatian and Serbian)
• Da li je moguće? (Serbian)

As a summary, English sentence "I want to know whether I'll start working" would typically read:

• Želim da znam da li ću da počnem da radim. (spoken Serbian)
• Želim znati hoću li početi raditi (spoken Croatian)

although many in-between combinations could be met in vernacular speech, depending on speaker's dialect, idiolect, or even mood.

[edit] Trebati (need)

In Croatian, verb trebati (need or should) is transitive, as in English. In Serbian and Bosnian, it is impersonal, (as French il faut, or English construct is necessary (to)); the grammatical subject is either omitted (it), or presents the object of needing; the person that needs something is an indirect grammatical object, in dative case:

Serbian and Bosnian	English (literal trans.)		Croatian	English
Petru treba novac.	Money [is necessary] to Peter.		Petar treba novac.	Peter needs money.
Ne trebam ti.	I [am not necessary] to you		Ne trebaš me.	You don't need me.
Treba da radim.	(It) [is necessary] that I work.		Trebam raditi.	I should work.

[edit] Vocabulary

[edit] Examples

Most differences among the languages lie in the vocabulary. However, most words are well understood, or even occasionally used, in other languages; in most cases, common usage favors one variant while the other(s) are regarded as "imported", archaic, dialectal or simply, more rarely used.

English	Serbian	Croatian	Bosnian	Montenegrin
one thousand	hiljada	tisuća	hiljada	hiljada
January [6]	januar	siječanj	januar	januar
factory	fabrika	tvornica	fabrika tvornica	fabrika
rice	pirinač riža	riža	riža	oris
carrot	šargarepa	mrkva	mrkva	mrkva šargarepa
outer	spoljno	vanjsko	vanjsko	spoljašnje
oil (food)	ulje zejtin	ulje	ulje	ulje
spinach	spanać	špinat	špinat	spanać
football	fudbal	nogomet	fudbal nogomet1	fudbal
train	voz	vlak	voz	voz
wave	talas	val	val talas	talas val
person	lice osoba	osoba	lice osoba	osoba lice
uncivil	nevaspitan	neodgojen	neodgojen	nevaspitan
one's own	sopstveno vlastito	vlastito	vlastito sopstveno	vlastito sopstveno
road [7]	put cesta drum džada	cesta put	put cesta drum džada	put cesta
road toll	putarina	cestarina	putarina	putarina cestarina
But:
dad	tata	tata	tata babo	tata
tomato	paradajz	rajčica	paradajz	paradajz pamidora

¹ Bosniac linguists claim that word "nogomet" is "used in Bosniac"; still, the form "fudbal" is in majority use among Bosniacs, compare FK Sarajevo, FK Velež.

English	Serbian	Croatian	Bosnian	Montenegrin
to accept	prihvatati	prihvaćati	prihvatati	prifatati
happy, lucky	srećan	sretan	sretan srećan	srećan
to comprehend	shvatati	shvaćati	shvatati	sfatati
But:
to catch	hvatati	hvatati	hvatati	fatati

Note that there are only a few differences that can cause confusion, for example the verb "ličiti" means "to look like" in Serbian and Bosnian, but in Croatian it is "sličiti"; "ličiti" means "to paint".

The word "bilo" means "white" in ikavian, "pulse" in official Croatian and "was" in all official languages, although it is not so confusing when pronounced because of different accentuation (bîlo or bílo = white, bı̏lo = pulse, bílo = was).

In Serbian, word izvanredan (extraordinary) has only the positive meaning (excellent), vanredan being used for "unusual" or "out of order"; however, only izvanredan is used in Croatian in both contexts. Thus, Croatian phrase izvanredno stanje (martial law) sounds funny to Serbian ears.

Also note that in most cases Bosnian officially allows all of the listed variants in the name of "language richness" (or lack thereof), and ambiguities are resolved by preferring the Croatian variant. Generally, no rule for the vocabulary treatment in Bosnian language can be deduced. Bosnian vocabulary writers based their decisions on usage of certain words in literary works by Bosnian authors.

[edit] Names of the months

In the Croatian language months have Slavic names, while Serbian and Bosnian use the same set of international Latin-derived names as English. But Slavic names may also be used in the Bosniak language as well (although, rarely understood); Latin-derived names are preferred.

English	Croatian	Serbian and Montenegrin	Bosnian
January	siječanj	januar	januar
February	veljača	februar	februar
March	ožujak	mart	mart
April	travanj	april	april
May	svibanj	maj	maj
June	lipanj	jun	juni
July	srpanj	jul	juli
August	kolovoz	avgust	avgust
September	rujan	septembar	septembar
October	listopad	oktobar	oktobar
November	studeni	novembar	novembar
December	prosinac	decembar	decembar

International names of months are well understood in Croatia and several names of internationally important events are still commonly known using the international name of the month: "1. maj", "1. april", "oktobarska revolucija". In spoken Croatian it is common to refer to a month by its number, in order to be understood by e.g. Bosniaks or Serbs. Croats therefore often say "peti mjesec" ("the fifth month") for May if they speak to people from other cultures.

[edit] Notes on comprehension

It is important to notice a few issues:

• Pronunciation and vocabulary differs among dialects spoken within Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia themselves. Each larger region has its own pronunciation and it is reasonably easy to guess where a speaker is from by their accent and/or vocabulary. Colloquial vocabulary can be particularly different from the official standards.
  This is one of the arguments for claiming it is all one and the same language: there are more differences within the territories of the official languages themselves than there are between the standards (all of which inherit from the standards established in Yugoslavian times, when Serbo-Croatian was the official language). This is not surprising, of course, for if the lines between the languages were drawn not politically but linguistically, then there would be no borders at all. As Pavle Ivić explains, the continuous migration of Slavic populations during the five hundred years of Turkish rule has scattered the local dialects all around.

• When Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats talk amongst each other, the other speakers usually understand them completely, save for the odd word, and quite often, they will know what that means. Nevertheless, when communicating with each other, there is a habit to use terms that are familiar to everyone, with the intent to avoid not being understood and/or confusion.
  For example, to avoid confusion with the names of the months, they can be referred to as the "first month", "second month" and so on which makes it perfectly understandable for everyone. In Serbia, the names of the months are the international ones so again they are understandable for anyone who knows English or another Western European language.

• Entire books and movies have been "translated" from one language to another. However, the translation of the Serbian movie Rane (Wounds) into Croatian for example turned it from a tragedy into a comedy, as the whole audience was laughing at the "translation." On the other hand: probably the most bizarre case is Swiss psychologist Jung's masterpiece "Psychology and Alchemy"; translated into Croatian in 1986, and retranslated, in late 1990s, into Serbian not from the original German, but from Croatian. A translation and "translation's translation"; differ on virtually every page— orthographically, lexically, syntactically and semantically. However, these translations were done during and after the Serbian military campaign in Croatia, and the translations were taken to extreme distances to diverge the languages as much as possible. Recently a Croatian firm placed job ads in Belgrade and Podgorica dailies, looking to employ freelance translators and interpreters from Serbian to a number of foreign languages and vice-versa. Among them, the company was looking for 10 translators for the Bosnian and Montenegrin languages.

[edit] Language sample

The following samples, taken from article 1 to 6 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are "synonymous texts, translated as literally as possible" in the sense of Ammon^[8] designed to demonstrate the differences between the standard varieties treated in this article in a continuous text.

Croatian	Bosnian	Serbian	Montenegrin	English
Opća deklaracija o pravima čovjeka	Opšta deklaracija o pravima čovjeka	Opšta deklaracija o pravima čov(j)eka	Opšta deklaracija o pravima čovjeka	Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Član 1. Sva ljudska bića rađaju se slobodna i jednaka u dostojanstvu i pravima. Ona su obdarena razumom i sviješću i trebaju jedno prema drugome postupati u duhu bratstva.	Član 1. Sva ljudska bića rađaju se slobodna i jednaka u dostojanstvu i pravima. Ona su obdarena razumom i sviješću i treba da jedno prema drugome postupaju u duhu bratstva.	Član 1. Sva ljudska bića rađaju se slobodna i jednaka u dostojanstvu i pravima. Ona su obdarena razumom i sv(ij)ešću i treba da jedno prema drugome postupaju u duhu bratstva.	Član 1. Sva ljudska bića rađaju se slobodna i jednaka u dostojanstvu i pravima. Ona su obdarena razumom i sviješću i treba da jedno prema drugome postupaju u duhu bratstva.	Article 1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Član 2. Svakome su dostupna sva prava i slobode navedene u ovoj Deklaraciji bez razlike bilo koje vrste, kao što su rasa, boja, spol, jezik, vjera, političko ili drugo mišljenje, narodnosno ili društveno podrijetlo, imovina, rođenje ili drugi pravni položaj. Nadalje, ne smije se činiti bilo kakva razlika temeljem političkog, pravnog ili međunarodnog položaja zemlje ili područja kojima neka osoba pripada, bilo da je ovo područje nezavisno, pod skrbništvom, nesamoupravno, ili da se nalazi ma pod kojim drugim ograničenjima suverenosti.	Član 2. Svakome su dostupna sva prava i slobode navedene u ovoj Deklaraciji bez razlike bilo koje vrste, kao što su rasa, boja, pol, jezik, vjera, političko ili drugo mišljenje, narodnosno ili društveno porijeklo, imovina, rođenje ili drugi pravni položaj. Nadalje, ne smije da se čini bilo kakva razlika na osnovu političkog, pravnog ili internacionalnog položaja zemlje ili područja kojima neko lice pripada, bilo da je ovo područje nezavisno, pod starateljstvom, nesamoupravno, ili da se nalazi ma pod kojim drugim ograničenjima suverenosti.	Član 2. Svakome su dostupna sva prava i slobode navedene u ovoj Deklaraciji bez razlike bilo koje vrste, kao što su rasa, boja, pol, jezik, v(j)era, političko ili drugo mišljenje, narodnosno ili društveno por(ij)eklo, imovina, rođenje ili drugi pravni položaj. Nadalje, ne sm(ij)e da se čini bilo kakva razlika na osnovu političkog, pravnog ili internacionalnog položaja zemlje ili područja kojima neko lice pripada, bilo da je ovo područje nezavisno, pod starateljstvom, nesamoupravno, ili da se nalazi ma pod kojim drugim ograničenjima suverenosti.	Član 2. Svakome su dostupna sva prava i slobode navedene u ovoj Deklaraciji bez razlike bilo koje vrste, kao što su rasa, boja, pol, jezik, vjera, političko ili drugo mišljenje, narodnosno ili društveno porijeklo, imovina, rođenje ili drugi pravni položaj. Nadalje, ne smije se činit bilo kakva razlika na osnovu političkog, pravnog ili međunarodnog položaja zemlje ili područja kojima neko lice pripada, bilo da je ovo područje nezavisno, pod starateljstvom, nesamoupravno, ili da se nalazi ma pod kojim drugim ograničenjima suverenosti.	Article 2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Član 3. Svatko ima pravo na život, slobodu i osobnu sigurnost.	Član 3. Svako ima pravo na život, slobodu i ličnu bezbjednost.	Član 3. Svako ima pravo na život, slobodu i ličnu bezb(j)ednost.	Član 3. Svako ima pravo na život, slobodu i ličnu bezbjednost.	Article 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Član 4. Nitko ne smije biti držan u ropstvu ili ropskom odnosu; ropstvo i trgovina robljem zabranjuje se u svim njihovim oblicima.	Član 4. Niko ne smije da bude držan u ropstvu ili ropskom odnosu; ropstvo i trgovina robljem zabranjuje se u svim njihovim oblicima.	Član 4. Niko ne sm(ij)e da bude držan u ropstvu ili ropskom odnosu; ropstvo i trgovina robljem zabranjuje se u svim njihovim formama.	Član 4. Niko ne smije bit držan u ropstvu ili ropskom odnosu; ropstvo i trgovina robljem zabranjuje se u svim njihovim formama.	Article 4. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Član 5. Nitko ne smije biti podvrgnut mučenju ili okrutnom, nečovječnom ili ponižavajućem postupku ili kažnjavanju.	Član 5. Niko ne smije da bude podvrgnut mučenju ili okrutnom, nečovječnom ili ponižavajućem postupku ili kažnjavanju.	Član 5. Niko ne sm(ij)e da bude podvrgnut mučenju ili okrutnom, nečovečnom ili ponižavajućem postupku ili kažnjavanju.	Član 5. Niko ne smije bit podvrgnut mučenju ili okrutnom, nečovječnom ili ponižavajućem postupku ili kažnjavanju.	Article 5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Član 6. Svatko ima pravo da se svugdje pred zakonom priznaje kao osoba.	Član 6. Svako ima pravo da se svagdje pred zakonom priznaje kao lice.	Član 6. Svako ima pravo da se svuda pred zakonom priznaje kao lice.	Član 6. Svako ima pravo da se svugdje pred zakonom priznaje kao lice.	Article 6. Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Sources: The Bosnian text is taken from the official translation of the UNHCHR (just as the English original). This Bosnian translation was translated into Croatian and Serbian in the course of a seminar at Bonn University. The official Serbian and Croatian translations have been made independently and thus include mainly individual, rather than linguistic, differences.

[edit] See also

• A language is a dialect with an army and navy
• Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache
• Mutually intelligible languages
• Shtokavian dialect
• Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Standard Language (Deklaracija o nazivu i položaju hrvatskog književnog jezika), [4], published in Telegram, "Yugoslav newspapers for social and cultural questions, nr. 359, 17 March 1967

[edit] External links

• Peter Trudgill, Glocalisation and the Ausbau sociolinguistics of modern Europe (2004)

[edit] References

1. ^ Croatian and Serbian: Delusions and Distortions, Miro Kačić, Novi Most, Zagreb 1997
2. ^ (Croatian) Interview with Ivo Panjković, Slobodna Dalmacija, February 7, 2006
3. ^ (Croatian) "Croatian language and the policy of language unity", Vijenac, 1998
4. ^ A Handbook of Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian, Wayles Brown and Theresa Alt, SEELRC 2004
5. ^ Lexical, Pragmatic, and Positional Effects on Prosody in Two Dialects of Croatian and Serbian, Rajka Smiljanic, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-97117-9
6. ^ 1) All month names are different. See below for full table.
   
7. ^ 2) This is an excellent example of foreign influences. "Put" and "cesta" are Slavic, "drum" is Greek and "džada" is Turkish. Moreover, the central difference lies in the fact that Croatian is, unlike Serbian or Bosnian, a purist language, as it is the case with Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and German language.
8. ^ Ulrich Ammon, Die deutsche Sprache in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. Das Problem der nationalen Varietäten. Berlin, New York 1995, p. 6.